MEP says Tymoshenko’s condition is serious
Kyiv/Prague, Feb 21 (CTK) – Former Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko was not duly treated in prison and her diagnosis is serious, Czech MEP Zuzana Roithova told CTK by phone from Kyiv yesterday.
Roithova could see in Ukraine Tymoshenko’s health documents from last November.
“Instead of treating her, they took away from her crutches, halted administering analgesics and she underwent demanding, several-hour-long questionings. She is really tormented and maltreated,” Roithova said.
She said she considers Tymsohenko family’s fears that “she may be exposed to the influence of toxic substances in order to yield to the regime’s pressure substantiated.”
She arrived in Kyiv on Sunday to prepare a report concerning the health condition of Tymoshenko, leader of the Ukrainian opposition, for the European Parliament (EP).
Authorities did not allow Roithova to meet Tymoshenko.
“They do not allow anyone but her daughter and lawyer to see her,” Roithova, former Czech health minister, said.
She said Tymoshenko is denied “fundamental rights to which everyone, even though imorisoned, the more so after a political trial, is entitled.”
Roithova said the documentation from last November clearly shows that Tymoshenko’s defects in the area of the lumbar spine are so serious that she should have been duly treated, mainly by anesthetics and rest in bed.
A few weeks later a decision should have been made on a possible operation, Roithova said.
“Yulia will naturally never apply for a pardon, she is a firm woman who will not give in,” Roithova said.
She said she will propose that the international community, including the EU, ask for independent analyses of a sample of Tymoshenko’s tissues.